MDI man charged after another man suffers burns at Lamoine bonfire

LAMOINE, Maine — A Mount Desert Island man has been charged in connection with an incident early Sunday morning in which a local man was burned, according to police.

The incident occurred around 12:30 a.m. Sunday at a bonfire on Cape Road in Tremont, according to a report summary released by the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department. A 19-year-old Lamoine man was injured when someone threw a gas can on the bonfire, causing the gas can to explode.

The name of the injured man and where in Lamoine the fire was located were not immediately available Monday. The man was taken by LifeFlight helicopter from Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where he was being treated for injuries that were not life-threatening, according to police.

Blake Thomas, 21, of Southwest Harbor has been charged with reckless conduct, the Sheriff’s Department indicated in the release. It did not indicate whether Thomas is the person suspected of throwing the gas can onto the fire.

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The state fire marshal’s office is working on the investigation along with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, according to the release.

Attempts to contact police directly to get additional information about the incident were unsuccessful. Officers at the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department who were knowledgeable and authorized to speak about the incident were unavailable Monday afternoon. A message left Monday afternoon with Stephen McCausland, spokesman for Maine Department of Public Safety, was not returned.

CORRECTION:

An early version of this story contained inaccurate information about where and what time of day the incident occurred due to a reporting error. The incident occurred on Cape Road in Tremont and happened sometime between midnight and 12:30 a.m. on May 6, not 3 a.m. in Lamoine, according to the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department.